Which Way Should a Bathroom Door Open?

Quick answer: Open the bathroom door through the swing you will actually use, and see what it hits. Inside, that is usually the basin, the shower screen, or a towel on the rail. Outside, it is the landing, another door, or the top of the stairs. Decide that swing before the basin and the screen are fixed. This is a planning note for Isle of Man bathrooms. It does not give a door width, a price, or a lock to buy.

The door is a fitting, in the same way the basin is. If you are still placing the bath, the basin and the toilet, start with how to plan a bathroom layout. The door swing belongs on that plan, not as a surprise on fitting day.

What does the door hit inside the room?

Stand in the doorway and open the door all the way. If it stops on the basin, the basin pedestal, or a vanity, one of those two things has to move. A door that only opens halfway is a door you will prop with a bin.

A shower screen or a bath screen is the next clash. The door should finish its swing without meeting the glass. If the screen is still to be chosen, mark the door arc on the plan first. Walk-in showers and a screen over a bath both take a slice of floor the door may already be using.

A heated towel rail is easy to put on the wall the door lands on. The towel then sticks out further than the rail. Heated towel rails covers the wall and the hanging towel. Here, the only question is whether the open door wipes that towel onto the floor.

Look at the toilet too. A door that swings across the front of the pan, or that you have to close before anyone can sit down, is the wrong swing for a room this size. In a small cloakroom the same test is stricter, because there is less floor to give away.

What does it block outside?

Open the door onto the landing or the hall and walk past it. The useful test is the house with the door fully open, not with it politely held against the wall by someone standing there.

Check three things:

• The top of the stairs. A door that opens into the flight is in the way of anyone coming up.
• The door opposite, or the airing-cupboard door. Two doors that need the same piece of floor cannot both open.
• The route to the only bathroom, if this is the only one. A door left open while someone is in the shower should not block the landing for everyone else.

Photograph the landing with the bathroom door open. A photo of the closed door hides the problem.

Should it open into the room or out onto the landing?

There is no single answer for every Isle of Man house. A large bathroom can often take a door that opens in, clear of the basin and the screen. A small room often cannot, because the door arc is the same size as the floor you wanted to stand on.

The Isle of Man Affordable Housing Standards design guide (Housing Division, December 2015) is written for affordable housing. It says English Part M is not a statutory requirement on the Island. In its bathroom section it says entrance and shower doors must fully open and not clash with the fittings, and that serious consideration should be given to opening the door outwards into the hall or landing, particularly in bungalows and sheltered apartments. That is a standard for the housing the guide covers. It is a useful test for a private refit. It is not a rule this page can put on your house.

If the door opens out, the landing has to have the room, as the section above sets out. If it opens in, the basin, the screen and the toilet have to sit outside the arc. Write the choice in one line on the plan: opens in, or opens out, and what it misses.

What about the lock, the closer, and the frame?

The same design guide says bathroom doors should have a lock that can be opened from the outside in an emergency. That is a fair brief for a family house as well as for the housing the guide was written for. Say so when the door is ordered. A bolt that can only be slid from inside is the one you cannot undo when a child locks it.

A self-closer changes the swing. A door that pulls itself shut will hit a towel, a robe, or a person standing at the basin. If you want a closer, check the swing with it in mind. If you do not, say that the door stays where it is put.

The frame and the architrave take space the leaf does not show on a sketch. An old Manx lining that is out of square can make a new door catch even when the drawing looked clear. Photograph the lining, and the floor at the threshold, before the old door comes off.

What should be agreed before the basin and the screen are fixed?

Take this list to the survey:

1. Which way the door opens, and a photo of it fully open.
2. What that open door meets: basin, screen, toilet, towel rail, stairs, another door.
3. Whether the lock can be opened from the landing.
4. Whether this is the only bathroom, and who has to get past the open door.
5. If someone needs a wider clear opening, say so. Width is a separate question. Start with accessible bathroom planning, then confirm the opening on site. This page does not give a measurement.

The bathroom planning checklist is the wider list for the same visit. You can place the basin and the bath in the designer, then mark the door arc on that plan and check it in the room.

The basin itself, and the pipework in the wall behind it, is covered in pedestal, vanity or wall-hung. Move the basin for the door only once you know which of those you are fitting.

What this guide does not claim

This guide does not set a minimum door width, a price, or a product. It does not say that every private bathroom on the Isle of Man must follow the affordable-housing design guide. The swing you can live with is the one that opens fully and misses the fittings, the stairs and the other doors. That is confirmed in the room, not from a photograph of a closed door.